Nov. 10--The Four Seasons Hotel and Tower has suspended sales operations in the face of weak demand for luxury condominiums in what will be Florida's tallest building. 

Construction continues on the 800-foot-tall combination of a residential tower and five-star hotel on Brickell Avenue. But developer Millennium Partners has stopped promoting sales. The New York company dropped the project's public relations campaign, halted advertising and told its Miami sales director not to report to work, a spokesman said. 

"We tested the market and we didn't find it as strong as we hoped it would be. So we decided to go into a dormant mode," said Matthew Hall, director of corporate communications at Millennium, a national hotel builder with projects in San Francisco, New York and Boston. He said the company will probably sit out the entire winter before it resumes marketing the Four Seasons, which is slated for a Spring 2003 opening. 

Local analysts said the Four Seasons hiatus marks first pullback at a major condominium project in South Florida since the recent economic downturn, raising questions about the region's growing supply of pricey condos. 

So far developers have said they remain optimistic that low interest rates, foreign buyers and sunny beaches would keep the Miami market strong. 

"The other developers are saying they're moving forward," said Alicia Cervera, the Miami real estate broker who sold Millennium the land for the $380 million project in 1998. "Their business plans are not changing that dramatically." 

In a year that saw luxury condominium listings rise dramatically in Miami-Dade County, Millennium said it was unable to attract much interest in its half-finished skyscraper. Since opening its sales office in March a few blocks from the downtown construction site, Millennium has sold only 30 of its planned 270 condo units. 

"When there's no urgency for people to buy, people say why should I make that purchase now? I'll wait until I can actually go out on the balcony and look at the view," Hall said. 

While most banks require large projects like the Four Seasons to sell half their units before starting construction, Millennium started building more than a year before opening its sales office. But Millennium was able to bypass usual lending rules by financing a large portion -- about 40 percent -- of the project itself. That will allow it to weather a break in sales without affecting construction, Hall said. 

"Our marketing dollars will be better spent next year, when hopefully our economy will be in better shape," he said. 

Timing is certainly an issue. The increasing number of $750,000-and-above condos for sale -- 641 units on the resale market last month, double from a year ago -- has led some in the industry to predict a weakening in prices. So far prices are holding their ground, but some real estate watchers are nervous. 

"I've got clients in the business -- very significant players in the luxury business -- who are quite concerned," said Lewis Goodkin, a real estate analyst in Miami. He said the slumping stock market has already prompted wealthy second-home buyers -- the engine of Miami's condo market -- to pull back. 

He added that Florida's tourism struggles are bound to make it worse: "Visitors turn to buyers." 

While Millennium executives were pondering a marketing freeze before Sept. 11, Hall said the terrorist attacks made their decision easier. Despite the public's new skittishness toward skyscrapers, Hall said the Four Season's 70-story height -- billed as the tallest residential building south of New York -- was not a factor. 

He predicted that soaring views will remain one of the project's top selling points. 

Yet some questioned selling views atop Miami's skyline so soon after the World Trade Center attacks. 

"After 9-11," said real estate analyst David Dabby, "people don't relish or value height like they used to." 

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(c) 2001, The Miami Herald. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. FS,